Our beautiful Bella Girl was born July 17, 1995. I remember the day we picked her out of a litter, she was tiny, “but she didn’t know it” she would fit in the palm of my hand and weighed under a pound. She was a Chihuahua with black and white markings. She was feisty and cute. Everybody used to tell us she looked like a miniature wolf. We originally decided to get her as a companion to our beloved Cisco Kid, a male Chihuahua who passed away four years ago. My wife and I were newlyweds and they were our only children for the first ten years of our marriage.
There was an immediate bond between us. It was as if we had known each other for ever. She was so affectionate. And she was not satisfied to just receive love she had to give more and more love as if not to be out done. We know this is a once in a lifetime thing, she can never be replaced, She brought so much joy to this family over the past 15 years
There are so many things that I remember about our Bella. She was so smart. I could say are you ready to go “walking walking” and she would go over to where we kept the leash and wait for me to put it on her. If I said “Do ya wanna?” She would stand frozen just waiting for me to say something else. And then if I said “time to go bye bye” She would run to the front door.
At age 14 is when she started having health issues. She couldn’t sleep at night due to so much coughing. The vet said she had congestive heart failure. He gave us medication. It worked at first but she became immune to the medication and the vet had to increase the dose. She started having seizures. She would fall on her side and start screaming it was a terrible thing to see. That’s when me and my wife started talking about when is the right time for euthanasia. I started to second guess myself and wonder if I was being selfish and only thinking of myself by keeping her alive. It is such a painful decision. Finally on December 10 it was a terrible night for her. I was worried she was going to pass that night. Every breath was a struggle for her. Every ten minutes she would get up and start coughing. The next morning during her breakfast she had a seizure. And that’s when we decided that it has got to end now. We took our children to a baby sitter so we could be alone with our Bella just like the old days. We spent the rest of that morning taking her on a walk in our neighborhood. We made her a special meal. It was just like old times. She passed away December 11, 2010.
Our hearts ache for her, we can’t stop thinking of her, the only peace we get is knowing that the suffering is over, but, it’s still so hard to let her go, we miss her so much!

— Steven & Paulette from Ft. Worth, TX